Airplanes are conventionally provided with lighting systems which include wing tip mounted navigation lights and anti-collision lights. It is a requirement of the controlling federal agency that the anti-collision lights be provided with means whereby they may be turned off and the navigation lights left on when a aircraft is flown in clouds or fog. The continued operation of the flashing anti-collision lights under the environmental conditions described may be responsible for producing "flicker vertigo" and/or spacial disorientation.
Since aircraft of the type in which the present invention finds utility generally have only a single wire extending to each wing tip to power the lights, it has heretofore been necessary partially to disassemble the aircraft wings and fuselage in order to install additional wiring so that the wing tip anti-collision lights may be controlled, as required. The type of anti-collision lights most commonly used is the gas discharge tube "strobe light" which requires a special power supply to raise the 12 or 24 volt aircraft power output to approximately the 400 volts which is needed to ignite or fire the strobe tube. Two general types of wing tip strobe light installations are generally in use. The first and most common has a single power supply centrally mounted in the fuselage and requires the installation of special high voltage cables extending past the wing fuel tanks and out to the wing tip mounted flash tubes. The second system in use utilizes a high voltage supply and flash tube mounted in each wing tip but still requires the installation of additional wiring in the wings so that the strobes can be turned off and the navigation lights left on.
It is to the solution of the problem of providing effective control of the strobe lights while not interfering with the illumination of the navigation lights that the present invention is directed. In accordance with the invention there is provided an improved electrical and electronic control system in which a switch and associated circuitry constitute effective means for turning the anti-collision lights on and off from the cockpit of the plane without interferring with the normal operation of the lights. The system of the invention functions using only a single wire to each wing tip, thereby obviating any need to install additional wiring inside the aircraft wings and fuselage.